I love DMing, but I like playing too! :(

[WalterKovacs]

I've only recently started DM'ing, as the gaming store had more people wanting to play than one DM could handle, so I took half the group. However, there are also other gaming groups I'm involved with. In one of the groups, myself and the other DM would trade off each week, not just so both of us could play, but also to give us more prep time between sessions.

One posibility, while not necessarily easy to pull off since it requires extra time and finding more people, is to have two groups. It may be easier to be the dedicated DM for one group, and find another existing group that is looking for an extra player to play there. This could help with part of the reason that people may be resistant to giving a DM "time off" ... the DM and/or the campaign that the DM is running are something they don't want to give up. It's hard to try something new (be it a DM, or a new campaign) when there is one that you know and love.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Glad to see I'm not the only one in this situation, and congrats to those who found a way out of it!

I'm wondering, why is it players are so reluctant to DM? Is it because they're nervous, or because picking the one they've always had is a path of least resistance? Or something else entirely?

 

[Dzyu]

I'm wondering, why is it players are so reluctant to DM? Is it because they're nervous, or because picking the one they've always had is a path of least resistance? Or something else entirely?

I my group I think these were some of the possible excuses:

1. Thinks DMing sounds like a chore/not willing to spend time preparing.
2. Puts the DM-job on a pedestal. They don't think they can do it themselves.
3. Doesn't like the attention.
4. Not enough time.
5. Don't know the rules well enough/doesn't want to read rules on their "spare time".
6. "You do such a good job already, and you love it anyway!"
7. Have tried it before and gotten poor feedback, or gotten little or no feedback and beat themselves up thinking it was a failure.

 

[Woas]

Could you please suggest a few examples?

Sure.

Traveller. Ok, so overall this game isn't that revolutionary, break down the fourth wall. But all the random tables for generating planets, solar systems, inter-system economics, atmospheres, cultures is like a game for the Ref in and of itself. Hell sometimes when I'm bored I just role up a planet.

3:16 Carnage Among the Stars. When I run this game I explain to the players that although I am in the GM position, really all I'm running are the NPC soldiers an aliens. Each player is sort of their own GM within the context or 'bubble' of their character. What that means is the players have just as much say in describing a scene as the GM so really everyone is a GM in that regards and the person who is 'the GM' really is on equal terms with everyone else at the table, he or she is just 'speaking for' the alien monsters.

Dogs in the Vineyard. The way the game works its sort of like 3:16. Instead of a typical RPG where the GM has monsters he throws in packaged encounters at the players and they then systematically stomp on the GM, DitV has a sort of poker/ante resolution system but with dice that lets everyone at the table get in the action and kind of go back and forth on a more eye-to-eye level instead of a GM vs Player setup.

Those are the three I am the most familiar with. I'm sure there are plenty more.

 

[Iron Sky]

I was introduced to a bunch of guys who played Battletech during lunch in 7th grade. A couple of times we played 2nd AD&D (I remember it being the game I always had wanted to play but never knew existed!) but at the end of 7th grade the old DM moved away.

In 8th grade I started running games, starting with ones I made up (a Doom game based off of the novels, an age of sail combat/rp game, a couple others), then I started GM 2nd edition, d6 Star Wars, and Alternity.

I was 99% GM for the next 5 years until I went to college in another state, so one of my other friends picked up the reins. He pretty much ran all the games while I was away in college and when I'd come back for breaks/summers, he'd want a break so I still ran games.

After I graduated from college, I became primary GM again, but at least we had another pretty experienced GM to run the occasional game. In the last couple years, I've actually gotten almost as much time playing as I have running games and I find I'm a much better GM than player - I enjoy playing, but I find it difficult to motivate my characters and "get into them".